A major new mine shaft at Newmont’s Tanami gold mine in the Northern Territory is expected to take operations to a new level of safety.
The 1.5km mine shaft is anticipated to be the deepest in Australia once operational by the end of 2026.
Not only almost doubling gold production at the mine, those on site see great potential for the shaft to make operations safer for the mine’s fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) workers.
“The majority of the trucks have blind spots,” underground haulage supervisor Suzanne Burke told the ABC.
“So your focus is in front, at the windscreen, at one little side mirror, and then your reversing camera, and that is all that you can see.”
Staying mentally alert while driving through the underground tunnels, which are often narrow ad dark, can be a challenge.
Burke said the new shaft will ease congestion in the tunnels, creating a safer environment for all.
With a mechanised underground crushing system that hoists up to 28 tonnes of ore to the surface per skip, the new shaft will operate much faster than the site’s current truck haulage method.
“The trucks take about a three-hour return trip to drive underground and pick up a load of rock and come back,” senior construction manager Grant Brinkman said.
“This shaft system, it can hoist the equivalent amount of rock in about two and half minutes.”
The shaft is one aspect of Newmont’s path to incorporating various degrees of autonomy into the mine.
The miner is also trialling MineStar, Caterpillar’s automated fleet management system that aims to improve efficiency and accuracy of reporting.
The technology aims to ease the burden from the sometimes 3000 radio calls a day at the mine manually logged by staff.
“It gives us a bit more time to look at different areas that we could probably improve,” MineStar builder Rachelle Pattermore said.
“We’re continually finding [challenges], but we’re continually improving it, and it’s been really cool.
“It’s an amazing opportunity to be a part of something from the start and to see it develop.”
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